


Perfect is a Four Letter Word

by Supergirl_prime



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Sanvers - Freeform, SuperCorp, karlena
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 16:26:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14265009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supergirl_prime/pseuds/Supergirl_prime
Summary: Kara Danvers has never been particularly smooth when it comes to romance - maybe because of her lack of experience, possibly because she gets flustered at the tiniest little thing - but since she first laid eyes on Lena Luthor all those years ago, she has only lost her cool even further...Kara thinks Lena is the most amazing, awe-inspiring person she has ever met.Lena thinks Kara is the girl who sits across the room in History.This is my first Supercorp fic so you may have to bear with me.





	Perfect is a Four Letter Word

For as long as Kara can remember she had been a dreamer. The unshakeable trait had been a sanctuary - for the girl who would stare outside the fogged, double glazed windows of her foster mother’s home with an impatient, telling frown written across her face and cross her fingers that somebody would appear at the end of the neglected, patchy driveway to take her away, somebody who wanted her and would want her the same way forever. For the girl who finally found a home in Midvale, where she would walk to with her adopted sister, Alex, most days from middle school as she crafted stories in her mind to keep her company when Alex had her dark red earphones in, allowing U2 to spill out noisily. But dreams had quickly become a downfall for the teenager who desperately wanted what she told herself she couldn’t have. When she felt like she wasn’t living up to the standards that a much younger version of herself had hoped she would have reached by then.

Staring at the chalky white paint that covers her ceiling, Kara’s mind hits a stretch of nothingness and she almost forgets her surroundings, until the brightness from her small dangling light catches her eye and she is forced to blink herself back into existence in order to prevent irritating purple lights appearing to obstruct her vision for too long. Being pulled back to reality causes Kara to notice the piles of books that stand on her pale blue dressing table in front of her mirror. With an exasperated sigh, she remembers that she is to begin her Senior year at Midvale High School the following morning, not that she particularly minded; she would see Lena.

Lena. The simple thought of her makes Kara smile hopelessly before she plays at wrapping her lips around her velvet name. It was a name that it seemed was constantly on her mind and a name that she would say often, be it as they had a conversation or as Alex listened, quietly suspicious as Kara spoke of her latest encounter with her ‘friend’ (Kara guesses that that’s how Lena sees her anyway, if that). Yet it was a name that felt awfully foreign as she uttered it alone in her bedroom at 11:27 PM.

Being Kara Danvers, she stayed up far too late thinking of what the next day would ensue and fell asleep fully clothed and dreamed of Raven hair.

 

 

“Did you watch last night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy?” Sam asks Kara before she stuffs three chips in her mouth and wipes her hands down her ripped grey jeans. The two had been best friends since they were 13 and they are possibly a little too comfortable around each other.

Kara hums in a minor tone. “Nope, Alex and Jeremiah were watching the game. I could’ve streamed it on my phone but I’d rather wait and watch it on a flat screen”

“Huh, fair enough.” Sam shrugs. “I couldn’t be so patient.”

“You don’t have to be.”

The two reach the school’s front entrance and simultaneously brush one of their hands against the painted grey plastic to each side of them. The air is far too cold than it should be for the beginning of September and Kara’s old, beloved denim jacket isn’t nearly enough to keep her warm. Sam, however, appears to be perfectly comfortable in her thin black Guns ‘n’ Roses T-shirt that she had bought while shopping with Kara even though she had never once listened to one of their songs by choice. Kara looks across her in feigned bewilderment.

“Do you have any plans for extracurriculars this year?” Sam sparks up a different conversation after a short moment of silence.

“No. I doubt I’ll do anything. I can hardly stand the workload I get from school alone, I don’t know why I would increase it by joining a club.”

“Come on, Kar.” Sam grasps at Kara’s right arm and pulls her shoulder into hers. “I bet you could find one that you’d enjoy, it’ll be good to try something new.”

“Well, I take it as you are.” Kara half smiles.

“I sure am.” Sam nods a little too enthusiastically and draws a furrow from Kara’s brow. “Astronomy. You should join me.”

“What? Really Sam?”

“Yup.” She answers with a chuckle.

“Why? You’ve never shown an interest in anything remotely similar. Not even when you were obsessed with Roswell.”

“Because I want some kind of a change. It’s the first year that we have had an Astronomy club and I don’t want it to be axed because the school is full of idiots who are too stuck in a rut to -”

“Try something new.” Kara rolls her eyes at the sentiment as she finishes Sam’s sentence. “That’s not fair, some people - including me - aren’t so confident in Science and math. Just because you can solve any atom economy question thrown at you in under 20 seconds,” Kara pokes Sam’s gut and smiles “Doesn’t mean everybody else can.”

“Well, that was very specific.”

They approach a row of blue lockers and come to a standstill at Kara’s. She would know it’s hers from the ugly white scratch that was accidentally carved in by the zip on Alex’s plain black backpack when she was still in High School and would lean against Kara’s locker as she waited for her to exit last period so she could go home. The number, however, is the real giveaway. Sam leans her body weight onto the locker beside Kara’s and crosses her long, tanned arms awkwardly, her elbows nudging into immovable metal. Kara shakes her head at her friend good-naturedly and swings open her locker.

It’s empty from being cleared out before summer and Kara is glad of it. Ultimately, she’s glad because she is able to fulfil the ‘tidy mind’ concept and knows that it will feel better than having a locker full of candy wrappers and library books that she had forgotten to take back but will never use again. Underneath that, there is an intonation of being capable of starting afresh - something that tells her that she doesn’t have to continue on the path she was on last year. Underachievement is something she was coming to accept. Then again, it’s just a clean locker. 

 

 

History had never been a favourite of Kara’s but when deciding between that and Geography, she had viewed the option as a lesser of two evils. The only reason she continued it in Senior year is her minor grasp on the subject. A common occurrence for the class would be highlighting words that meant absolutely nothing to her and writing about nonsense that she hoped the teachers would understand because she sure didn’t. However, today is a little different. 

As Kara enters classroom 76, the second thing she registers is an immediate regret towards the outfit she had chosen that morning. Wearing a black T-shirt that reads ‘On Wednesdays, we Wear Pink’ suddenly begs the question - was the irony really worth it? The high ponytail that she had nonchalantly thrown her long, wavy blonde hair into instantly causes her to wish she had gotten up just 20 minutes earlier to perfect a style that didn’t make her look the same way she had for the past 3 years and she just knows that her glossy black glasses aren’t particularly helping. All this invaded her head because of course, the first thing she had registered was Lena Luthor sitting at her desk at the opposite end of the classroom. 

Throwing her bag down underneath a corner desk near the back and pulling out her textbook, Kara slumps down and cradles her chin in her hand as she waits for the lesson to begin. She had spent at least 40 seconds standing next to the door to contemplate what side of the room she should sit on before agreeing with the part of her that was too irrationally anxious to sit within 2 seats of anybody with more than 5 close friends. In front of her sits Tyler Martin and Todd West, both of whom are the opposite of intimidating so Kara knows that the many questions she will have can be directed at them and they will reply without making her feel mentally and socially inept.

Mrs Hilton follows her usual routine of spending the first 10 minutes of the lesson writing out notes while speaking far too quickly and expecting the students to be able to keep up with her. Kara had gotten so used to it that throughout the majority of last year she had completely ignored that section of the class and generally, that is what she would do but something seems to compel her to do as she is supposed to so in her messy handwriting, she scrawls what she is seeing and hearing into her notebook and ends up with an utterly meaningless page of random words about the League of Nations and International Peace. Just as she is ready to give up and zone out, Mrs Hilton finally speaks to question the class about what she was previously writing. 

“So, what did the League of Nations Commissions aim to deal with?” At this point, Kara is desperately avoiding eye contact and at the same time is trying to look at the front of the classroom just enough to not seem suspicious. Mrs Hilton’s eyes scroll across each student sitting at each desk and an expression of disapproval is cast temporarily over her sunken in, hollow face. “Kara?”

Kara instantaneously darts her eyes back down to her incomprehensible notes and comes up with zilch. Small, abrupt, confused utterances escape her mouth as an accidental smirk of embarrassment betrays her. Kara can’t help but feel that it is a ridiculous question, seeing that they are close to 8 minutes into the topic and she hadn’t had the chance to allow what she had been learning to sink in but she’s not about to speak up about it. “Haven’t you been listening?” 

A false look of calm falls across Kara who for the first time since she had started at the school had actually been paying attention but before chaos can erupt, a familiar voice comes from the other side of the room. “Major issues and humanitarian concerns.”

Unable to mask her smile, Kara looks to her left to catch the end of Lena’s answer. Her voice is silky and breathy and causes Kara’s heart rate to rise slightly.

“Thank you, but I’m afraid your name isn’t Kara.” Mrs Hilton says tersely.

“I’m aware.” Lena straightens her back and similar to her nearly identical friends dons an almost heavy grin. “Just putting the poor girl out of her misery.”

Kara frowns. She doesn’t like the way Lena said it. It doesn’t sit right at the bottom of her stomach. She has never particularly liked being the centre of attention and is especially not a fan of Lena Luthor regarding her as a ‘poor girl’ while she giggles with Jessica Castro, Isabel Murphy, and April Wade. What she does enjoy, on the other hand, is the small smile offered to her by Lena as she pulls her dark hair out of her face to pull it onto one shoulder. Kara returns the smile, perhaps a little too widely and knows that she could live off of that for years. 

 

 

When Kara locates Sam at lunch, she is standing next to the Sign-up sheets that are plastered along a large pin board in one of the 3 science corridors and is eating a cheeseburger as fast as Concorde. Kara blinks and runs her tongue across her bottom lip in annoyance. “You could’ve at least sent me a text to tell me you’d be here.” 

“My phone is dead.” Sam swallows. “Besides, I knew you’d find me.”

“Find you?” Kara shakes her head and further approaches her friend. “Do you really think that this is the first place I looked? I have been patrolling the school trying to find you since lunch started.”

“Well, here I am.” Kara chuckles quietly and presses her hands to her hips. “Next to the sign-up sheets.”

“How convenient.” Another disagreeing look is shot from Kara to Sam. “You should know that your attempts are wasted on me.”

Sam hums and shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know about that. Maybe through sheer willpower, I will make you see the appeal or…” She knocks the knuckles of her index and middle fingers against a regular piece of paper that reads ‘ASTRONOMY’ across the top. “Maybe the fact that Lena Luthor is going will persuade you.”

Kara sighs audibly as she reads Lena’s full name on the third line down. Her handwriting is the complete opposite of Kara’s. It’s curly and neat and beautiful. In Kara’s peripheral vision, Sam is grinning obviously. “It won’t.”

“Really? Don't you want a constant excuse to talk to her? Don't you want to spend time with her -” Sam turns to read the details on the sheet, “- every Wednesday and Friday after school?” Sam had picked up on Kara’s crush on Lena almost straight away. A younger Kara had tried far too hard to deny everything but simply ended up admitting it when Sam had refused to believe her. 

“Come on, you know that would be torture for me. As if I would actually talk to her anyway and I wouldn’t be spending time with her, I’d be sitting next to you so I can copy your answers because we both know that I’m not even close to intelligent enough to do some of the stuff that I’ll have to.”

“It’s not going to be all that bad and I’m sure there will be a lot of theory. Just attending would look good on a College application.” Sam rationalises like she’s trying to sell her old junk at a Yard Sale. “It will do you more good than harm and you know it. You’re only saying no because you’re stubborn.”

“You think calling me stubborn is going to help your case here?” Kara raises her eyebrows and turns to look back at the pin board.

“Just put your name down, please. I won’t join if you won’t join and I would really love to give it a shot.” 

Kara stands in place for a long moment, biting the inside of her cheek and pushing her glasses back up her nose. Astronomy is not something she cares for and she is completely certain that if she is to choose an extracurricular, that should not be it, however, Sam is her best friend and she feels bad denying her of something that she wants so bad after Sam had always been up for anything for her. 

“Fine.” Kara finally mutters. “But you have to let me look at your answers and I’m going to require that you spend a lot of time explaining what I don’t understand.”

“Yes!” Sam twirls around triumphantly and throws her arms up in the air, all the while holding her unfinished burger. “ I love you!”

“Relax,” Kara mumbles as she scribbles her name below Sam’s.

“You won’t regret it.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

Sam tucks back into her burger, hiding an undeniable beam that has spread across her face. She is all of a sudden jittery and excitable and Kara feels a sense of pride that she had a part in her happiness but also feels a little bit mean for not agreeing instantly. Sam looks as though she had just won the lottery and Kara is astonished at how constantly over the top she is. The lengths of endearment that she feels towards her best friend are covered by a façade as Kara breathes in deeply and begins to speak again. “You’re ridiculous. Calm your shit.” 

Sam laughs in a noisy exhale. “Whatever. Did you eat?” 

“No, because I was too busy searching for you.” 

“Do you have anything?”

“Sure do.” Kara’s gait straightens and her eyes immediately lighten as she digs her a hand into the bottom of her bag to pull out a cheese sandwich, a snickers bar, and a bag of skittles. “As always, I’m the picture of perfect health.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Surprisingly, Kara was barely sarcastic before she had met Sam but her influence had caused a moldable 13-year-old Kara Danvers to incorporate sarcasm into her everyday dialect. “How you stay in such good shape I will never know. Your metabolism must be amazing.” Kara listens happily as she pulls a sandwich out of a plastic zip-lock bag. “I might have to come over more often so you aren’t ‘so bored that you might as well work out’” Sam mimics the words Kara had said to her in the past. 

“Why would you sabotage me that way?” Kara fakes hurt and takes a bite of her sandwich.

“I can’t keep up! It’s actually impossible!”

“Oh shut up, hardly.” Kara narrows her blue eyes. “You look like you just stepped out of a magazine.” Sam smiles appreciatively but goes on to mask it with a questioning expression.

“Must be a boring magazine, I own like four outfits.” 

“Which only highlights your skills of innovation.” While throwing her arm to the side, Kara laughs. A high pitched ring of a bell is emitted throughout the school, making Sam jump slightly and alarming all students that lunch is over. 

 

 

It wasn’t until she had been working at Café Lalo for 3 months that Kara realised that she doesn’t earn nearly enough money for the amount of time she donates to the place. She doesn’t claim to be the best barista in the world because she has completely accepted how much of a lie that would be but she also knows that she can’t possibly be too bad, considering her ability to hold the job. After pouring milk into a latte and butchering her first attempt at creating a heart on its surface, Kara is approached by her coworker and good friend Winn, who winks awkwardly at her and makes an attempt to flatten a stray few hairs that are sticking up from the back of his head.

“Kara…” Winn drags her name out as he twists the heels of his palms on the oak countertop in front of them. He smiles for a little too long and Kara instantly becomes aware of his motives and smirks. “Do you want to cover my shift on Saturday?” He blurts his words out like it hurts to speak.

“A Saturday?” Winn winces and nods with a pained expression plastered across his face. 

“Please, I’d really appreciate it. My friend James has tickets to see Maroon 5, he was going to go with his girlfriend but she can’t make it. I’ll cover any of your shifts in the future.” He begins to look like an impatient child as he pleads.

“Do I want to? No.” Kara shakes her head to accompany her words. Her schedule is so uneventful that she feels like letting Winn down would just be purely spiteful. “But I will.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Winn pulls her into a quick hug. 

“It’s nothing, you’re doing me a favour really.” Kara lets out a thick lie. In reality, she feels like the most wonderful person to ever live after making both Sam and Winn so happy during one day. Either that or a pushover. “I have no plans. Might as well make some money.”

“I’m so relieved. I’m gonna text James.” He pulls his phone out from his apron’s pocket and begins to walk away “You’re the best.”

Kara calls to him to agree as she peers back down to her failed decoration on the latte she had been practising on. Things are pretty slow at the café with just four customers dotted around. One of them, a regular named Joe who had been hunched over his laptop in the corner and typing profusely since before Kara had turned up. He has a simple Espresso beside him that has hardly been touched and has likely gone cold. Each member of staff knows better than to interrupt him, he gets antsy when he’s in the zone.

“Café Lalo. Like from You’ve Got Mail?” Suddenly, Kara’s stomach feels as though it has spontaneously disappeared and left an empty space in its wake. “Isn’t there an issue with copyright?” Kara lifts her head so quickly that she gets a slight headache. She would know that voice at any time, bright green eyes and obsidian locks only confirm what Kara was already suspecting. 

Kara’s breath hitches uncharacteristically, giving her the need to clear her throat. A few unintelligible noises escape before she speaks. “It would be more of a trademark issue since Café Lalo actually exists. But I guess that’s not much better ” Regret is immediate. There were so many better things she could have said to her but without even consulting her brain, her mouth forced out trivia and mindlessly contradicted the one person she would actually go out of her way to impress.

Kara is surprised and relieved when Lena laughs. The sound causes the pinpoint feeling that once inhabited her stomach to leap into her heart which is hit with the sensation of floating, while it continues to thump so hard that she’s sure Lena would be able to hear it if she tried. An overwhelming notion of happiness and pride floods Kara and pulls a huge grin on to her profile before she is given the chance to object. She straightens her posture due to the gain in confidence.

“Can’t say I really understand the difference between the two, but I knew it was something along those lines.” Lena chimes and places her hands on the counter. Her fingernails are painted black. The café wasn’t particularly a popular Midvale hang out spot so seeing Lena there is incredibly unexpected and Kara can already feel herself getting extremely unsettled. 

“So, what can I get you?” Kara asks her, repeating the phrase she asks all customers who give her a chance to speak before ordering. This time she adds a smile that never completely faded.

“I’ll just have a black coffee, please. No sugar” It’s a simple order. Not that Kara has heard many people asking for it without sugar. Kara hasn’t tried it and doesn’t plan to, it sounds overly bitter. It’s an acquired taste, but when it’s Lena Luthor’s taste it seems so impossibly sexy. Kara mentally scolds herself for thinking that way about something as trivial as a coffee preference. 

“Coming right up.” She tells her with far too much enthusiasm and so much volume that Joe squints over his laptop to look at her. Lena nods kindly in thanks. Kara takes a deep breath to relax her nerves and prevent further embarrassment. Lena stares forward inattentively at the boring, beige menu that the owner, Essie, had decided on for a reason unknown to Kara. She doesn’t seem to have noticed that Kara has been making a fool of herself throughout their very short conversation, causing Kara to believe that she is overreacting and could stand to chill out and quit thinking too far into things. Easier said than done. 

As Kara waits for the coffee to brew, Lena stays by the counter to wait but furthers the distance between the two of them by heading to the other end of the counter, likely so she wouldn’t be in the way of potential customers who entered the café. She turns her back and leans against the edge of the worktop as Winn twists his body around an ugly cream wall that stands between the front and back of the café. Kara is happy to see him as she usually feels more comfortable when they’re working together because she often makes mistakes that she requires his assistance to fix. 

“James is very thankful.” Winn’s black converse against the floor, the brewing coffee, and the sound of fingers tapping against a keyboard is about all that can be heard until his voice breaks the quiet. “Very nice of you to give up a Saturday.” 

“I already told you that it’s nothing. Don’t make it a thing, Winn.” Kara counters with a scoff and an affectionate smile. As she turns to look at Winn she notices that Lena has shifted her position to lean on her hands and is scanning the room with her eyes before settling her stare on Winn’s back. Kara accidentally catches her gaze and looks away as quickly as possible. It shouldn’t seem like she was looking intentionally at Lena but she was afraid that it did. Lena shoots her a half smile that Kara returns once her body has reacted by flipping internally. 

“Just text me the days and I’ll take your shift.” Winn reminds her casually. Once the coffee no longer needs to be brewed, he steps forward and grabs the pot. “This all?”

“Uh, yeah. I’ll do it.” All but snatching the pot from Winn’s hand, Kara switches her attention to Lena. “To go?” She already knows the answer before receiving a nod in response. It wouldn’t have made sense for her to have stood to wait for her drink as opposed to sitting down as she almost certainly would have if she was staying. Half of Kara is disappointed but the other half of her is unquestionably thankful. Winn takes a to go cup from a stack that stands on the worktop behind them and hands it to Kara. She thanks him and pours the boiling hot, dark liquid into the cup. The steams rises from the coffee as she does so, leaving her with a thin layer of condensation on the lenses and causing her to be unable to see the cup, however, she is pleased with her estimation of when to stop pouring once the fog clears and she can see her work. 

Fixing the plastic lid on the top of the cup, Kara brings it to Lena who pushes off her palms to stand up straight. “Thank you.” Her hair has drifted to fall in front of her right eye.

“No problem.” Kara puts the coffee on the counter and curves her lips upwards. “That’ll be $1.25” Lena hands Kara the exact change, clearly having prepared the money as Kara made her drink. Kara revels in the way their hands brush and she truly can’t stand it. 

Lena’s wonderful eyes feel like they are burning holes into Kara’s the next time she looks at her and for a moment Kara is sure that she is reading her thoughts. “See you tomorrow, Danvers.” is all she says before heading to the exit. Kara can’t take her eyes of Lena as she watches her walk away.

“Danvers.” Kara tests her own name on her lips and smirks when it feels different to the way it used to.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope it was alright :)
> 
> My Tumblr is @supergirl-prime but I can't link it for the life of me. No matter how hard I try. 
> 
> It's boring anyway since I only really use it to browse...


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